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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Oliver North.md

@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ On December 4, 1984, North sent Robert McFarlane a memorandum, "Assistance for t
 
 In March 1985 Singlaub took a weapons list drawn up with FDN commander [[Enrique Bermudez]] to North, who made "some additions and subtractions"; Singlaub's European dealer's prices were about half the FDN's previous prices, and North's notes of May 17, 1985 list a "Singlaub deal" for 10,000 AK-47s and record an attempt to dissuade Adolfo Calero from it. The arms arrived in Central America on July 8, 1985.[^8] The congressional committees' report states that a memorandum prepared by Singlaub's associate [[Barbara Studley]], proposing a "conduit" for Soviet weapons to anti-communist insurgents, was presented to North and William J. Casey in 1985; North acknowledged receiving it and dismissed its significance, and a copy was found in his safe.[^9] A memorandum from Studley to North dated October 30, 1985 ends: "General John K. Singlaub has been advised of this information."[^10]
 
-The writer [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that North received drug profits from Al-Kassar, a Syrian arms dealer, to buy arms for the Contras, and that the Tower Commission probe revealed Al-Kassar had been paid $1.2 million by Secord to move weapons from [[Israel]] to the Contras.[^11] The Final Report places the Enterprise's payment to Al-Kassar at $500,000 in July 1986 for Contra weapons.[^3] [[Bill Turner]], a friend of Casolaro's, claimed to have seen papers from [[Danny Casolaro]] connecting North and the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]; Seymour added that North's personal notebooks contained the name [[Ian Stuart Spiro]].[^11] Seymour is the sole source for the passages so cited.
+The writer [[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that North received drug profits from Al-Kassar, a Syrian arms dealer, to buy arms for the Contras, and that the Tower Commission probe revealed Al-Kassar had been paid $1.2 million by Secord to move weapons from [[Israel]] to the Contras.[^11] The Final Report places the Enterprise's payment to Al-Kassar at $500,000 in July 1986 for Contra weapons.[^3] [[Bill Turner]], a friend of Casolaro's, claimed to have seen papers from [[Danny Casolaro]] connecting North and the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]]; Seymour added that North's personal notebooks contained the name [[Ian Stuart Spiro]].[^11]
 
 The Enterprise's air operation used the [[Ilopango Airbase|Ilopango]] base in [[El Salvador]]. North wrote to [[Felix Rodriguez]] in September 1985 asking him to use his influence with Salvadoran Air Force commander [[Juan Rafael Bustillo]] to secure hangar space; the CIA's records, as the writer [[Gary Webb]] reported, show Hangar No. 4 at Ilopango was used by the CIA for covert Contra operations until it was turned over to the NSC and North's Enterprise in 1985, while the adjoining Hangar No. 5 remained CIA-run.[^12] Walsh's Enterprise chapter records that the Salvadoran chief at Ilopango, General Bustillo, ordered the operation's warehouse of parts and supplies there, and that the downing of [[Eugene Hasenfus]] on October 5, 1986 "settled irrevocably the question of CIA assumption" of the Enterprise's operation.[^3]
 
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ The Enterprise's air operation used the [[Ilopango Airbase|Ilopango]] base in [[
 
 According to testimony before the [[Kerry Committee]] by the Panamanian official José Blandón, [[Manuel Noriega]] met North in June 1985 on a boat anchored off Panama City to discuss Panamanian cooperation in the war against Nicaragua while the Boland Amendment barred direct or indirect CIA support. Blandón testified that this meeting produced Noriega's agreement to help train Contra troops and to let Contra leaders enter and leave Panama freely, and that at a second meeting Noriega suggested Panamanian units could be used in operations on Nicaraguan territory; Blandón had no information that Noriega acted on North's request. Noriega met Casey in November 1985; a memorandum Casey wrote suggested Noriega left "reassured" and the narcotics issue was not mentioned, and other U.S. officials concluded that Casey had "let Noriega off the hook."[^13]
 
-The Independent Counsel's summary of North's "Quid Pro Quo" admission describes discussions with Noriega about acts of sabotage against the Sandinista government in exchange for U.S. help in rehabilitating Noriega's public image.[^14] Webb wrote, citing government documents filed in North's trial, that Noriega also offered to have the entire Sandinista leadership assassinated in exchange for a promise to "clean up Noriega's image"; that North raised the proposal at a top-level meeting but was told to say the administration was not keen on murdering Nicaraguan officials though Panamanian help with sabotage would be acceptable; that North returned to Panama a month after the torture-murder of [[Hugo Spadafora]] to assure Noriega of increased U.S. aid; and that within a year $200 million in additional U.S. funds and bank loans went to Noriega.[^15] Webb is the sole source for the passages so cited.
+The Independent Counsel's summary of North's "Quid Pro Quo" admission describes discussions with Noriega about acts of sabotage against the Sandinista government in exchange for U.S. help in rehabilitating Noriega's public image.[^14] Webb wrote, citing government documents filed in North's trial, that Noriega also offered to have the entire Sandinista leadership assassinated in exchange for a promise to "clean up Noriega's image"; that North raised the proposal at a top-level meeting but was told to say the administration was not keen on murdering Nicaraguan officials though Panamanian help with sabotage would be acceptable; that North returned to Panama a month after the torture-murder of [[Hugo Spadafora]] to assure Noriega of increased U.S. aid; and that within a year $200 million in additional U.S. funds and bank loans went to Noriega.[^15]
 
 ### NHAO and the contractors
 
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ Webb wrote that North installed his courier [[Robert Owen]] as a $50,000 "facili
 
 The Kerry Committee report states that the DEA informant [[Barry Seal]] photographed a man identified as Federico Vaughn, a Nicaraguan government official, and [[Pablo Escobar]] loading Seal's plane with drugs; that the Seal operation "was disclosed prematurely by an administration official who leaked to the press evidence supposedly collected" in an effort to influence a pending congressional vote on Contra aid; and that "one individual in the U.S. government, Lt. Col. Oliver North, decided to play politics with the issue."[^13] The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime found that the phone number Vaughn used in calls from Seal was controlled by the U.S. Embassy; the State Department later reported no evidence of Nicaraguan use for drug shipments to the United States "since the allegations made in 1984 in connection with the Seal case."[^13]
 
-Webb wrote that congressional records show North was regularly briefed by the CIA on the Seal sting and supplied with evidence; that North said his only involvement was as an observer; that North's diary contained a July 6, 1984 entry, "Freddy coming in late July," and an October 15, 1986 entry, "46 boxes of transcripts of SF Frogman case. Justice never provided"; that four DEA officials testified they were pressed by North and the CIA to leak Vaughn's involvement; and that after Seal was murdered North told the FBI of an "active measures program" by the Sandinistas against him and said he might be targeted by organized crime.[^12][^15] Seal was shot on February 19, 1986, as he parked at the Salvation Army Community Treatment Center in Baton Rouge, and three men were convicted of first-degree murder in 1987.[^17] Webb is the sole source for the passages so cited, other than the Seal date.
+Webb wrote that congressional records show North was regularly briefed by the CIA on the Seal sting and supplied with evidence; that North said his only involvement was as an observer; that North's diary contained a July 6, 1984 entry, "Freddy coming in late July," and an October 15, 1986 entry, "46 boxes of transcripts of SF Frogman case. Justice never provided"; that four DEA officials testified they were pressed by North and the CIA to leak Vaughn's involvement; and that after Seal was murdered North told the FBI of an "active measures program" by the Sandinistas against him and said he might be targeted by organized crime.[^12][^15] Seal was shot on February 19, 1986, as he parked at the Salvation Army Community Treatment Center in Baton Rouge, and three men were convicted of first-degree murder in 1987.[^17]
 
 ### Drug-related contacts
 
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ Webb wrote that North's courier Robert Owen reported to North in 1985 that a DC-
 
 Webb wrote that at a 1984 meeting with DEA officials North suggested that $1.5 million in cocaine cash the DEA planned to seize from the Medellín cartel be turned over to the Contras, which the DEA declined; that a White House leak then blew the DEA operation; and that North wrote that Casey did not want the Contras' "unofficial funds" entering U.S. banks for fear Treasury agents would grow suspicious.[^18] Webb also wrote that North relied on fraudulent end-user certificates from Guatemala and Honduras after Boland, quoting Fiers: "an arms broker will get an intermediary country to issue false end-user certificates."[^19]
 
-Webb further wrote that Dagoberto Núñez, a Costa Rican trafficker working for North and the CIA, signed a contract with the Sandinista agency Heroes and Martyrs Trading Corporation, and quoted a 1986 Owen memo to North: "He believes this will provide an opportunity to use his boats for cover operations, or to implicate the Ortegas and Borge in taking money on the side." In Webb's account, in November 1986 the FBI's "Operation Front Door" interviewed the realtor of [[Ronald Lister]], who said Lister claimed to run a "CIA-approved" security business and had told a neighbor he worked for North and Secord and had sent arms shipments to the Contras; the lead was not pursued.[^12][^20] The former Air Force intelligence officer [[Terry Reed]] claimed North was his CIA contact for a pilot-training program and a machine-tool front in [[Arkansas]], and described an Arkansas State Police "shredding party" to purge the state's [[Mena, Arkansas]] files of nearly a thousand documents including those naming North and Reed; North has denied knowing anything about Reed or Mena.[^12] Webb is the sole source for the passages so cited.
+Webb further wrote that Dagoberto Núñez, a Costa Rican trafficker working for North and the CIA, signed a contract with the Sandinista agency Heroes and Martyrs Trading Corporation, and quoted a 1986 Owen memo to North: "He believes this will provide an opportunity to use his boats for cover operations, or to implicate the Ortegas and Borge in taking money on the side." In Webb's account, in November 1986 the FBI's "Operation Front Door" interviewed the realtor of [[Ronald Lister]], who said Lister claimed to run a "CIA-approved" security business and had told a neighbor he worked for North and Secord and had sent arms shipments to the Contras; the lead was not pursued.[^12][^20] The former Air Force intelligence officer [[Terry Reed]] claimed North was his CIA contact for a pilot-training program and a machine-tool front in [[Arkansas]], and described an Arkansas State Police "shredding party" to purge the state's [[Mena, Arkansas]] files of nearly a thousand documents including those naming North and Reed; North has denied knowing anything about Reed or Mena.[^12]
 
 Webb quoted North's 1991 memoir, *Under Fire*, as saying that the death squads in El Salvador, "under the guise of anti-Communism," terrorized the entire country and murdered nuns, teachers, labor organizers, political opponents and thousands of other civilians, and that most of the activity was the responsibility of the ARENA party and its leader [[Roberto D'Aubuisson]].[^12]
 
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ Seymour wrote that North reportedly attended a White House prayer group that [[N
 [^8]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, ch. 2, pp. 50-51 (HathiTrust full view, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173017837367&seq=74).
 [^9]: Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, ch. 15, p. 269 (HathiTrust full view, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txu.059173017837367&seq=293); Hartford Courant, "Head of Iran Hostage Probe Linked to Arms Deal," May 29, 1992 (memo found in North's safe), https://www.courant.com/1992/05/29/head-of-iran-hostage-probe-linked-to-arms-deal/
 [^10]: Graham Exhibit 1, Deposition of Daniel O. Graham, Appendix B, vol. 12 (Internet Archive item micro_IA41152840_0234).
-[^11]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010. Sole source for the passages so cited.
+[^11]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal.* TrineDay, 2010.
 [^12]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, chapters 6, 13 and 20.
 [^13]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, *Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy*, S. Prt. 100-165, December 1988 (Panama chapter; "Barry Seal and the Cartel"; "Bueso-Rosa and the Contras"; Nicaragua chapter). https://archive.org/details/Kerry-Report-Drugs-Contras
 [^14]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 2, section on the "Quid Pro Quo" admission and the "Heads of State" documents.